Our New Family

July 25th, 2007

We’ve settled into our new home with our new family. It’s a cement house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Nestled in front is a soon -to -be shop where Doris Glaybo can start a business. At present the floors are all dirt, except for the master bedroom, which Enoch Glaybo have tiled for us. We have our own bathroom (courtesy of our good Liberian friends) while eleven people share the other bathroom. Yes, that’s right, we are a family of thirteen!
Right now we are using candlelight at night and hauling in our water from outdoor hand pumps. Meals are cooked in an African coal pot and all is devoured by evening, as we have no refrigeration. Actually, with such a large family of hungry children, we have no problem eating every morsel of food by nightfall!

It is a joy for Gary and I to be living with such a wonderful family. Two of the boys are in their twenties and three of them are teenagers. The two girls are both teenagers, while the youngest two are boys of ages six and nine. Then of course, there are the parents Doris and Enoch Glaybo, as well as Gary and I. Everyone in the family has their designated chores: washing clothes by hand, hauling in water every evening, cooking on a coal pot, washing dishes, and ironing with a coal iron. The oldest boy tutors the two small boys .

Every afternoon our home is filled with joy as the children and young people come home from school. It is so much fun to be in a lively home again—full of chatting, laughter, bustle, and joking. Visiting lasts into the evening as folks sit outside under the African moon to cool down their bodies. Then they bathe with buckets of cool water, and settle down for a short night’s sleep.